How to Make a Baseball Diorama
A diorama recreates a setting that shows a specific moment in time, according to knowitall.org. Dioramas are three-dimensional models scaled down to a miniature size, often created in shoeboxes. Teachers assign dioramas to students because they allow kids to creatively portray a moment from a novel or history, show other students their work and explain why they found a particular scene significant. Homework assignment or not, creating a baseball diorama can creatively capture a moment in the sport's history.
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Things You'll Need
- Sketch paper
- Pencil
- Shoebox or comparable item
- Acrylic paints: dark brown, light brown, green, blue, pink, red
- Plastic plates
- Paintbrushes
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Swatch of astroturf or dollhouse grass
- Acrylic paste
- Plastic spoon
- Tan felt
- Miniature baseball players
- Miniature bat, ball and catcher's mitts
- Craft glue
Instructions
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Draw a simple sketch portraying the scene that you want to show and how you want your finished diorama to look. You can pick a famous scene from the history of baseball or a lesser known one. You can also portray a scene you've actually witnessed at a game or imagine one that you'd like to see.
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2
Place the shoebox on one of its longer sides, so that the box's interior is upright and facing you. In this position, put the box on a flat surface with enough room to complete the rest of the project. Paint all of the interior sides of the box dark brown except for the side that is flush against your worktable. That side, the bottom of the box, is going to be the baseball field.
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3
Measure the length and width of your "baseball field," or the bottom of the box. Cut your astroturf or dollhouse grass to match those dimensions. Squeeze some acrylic modeling paste onto a plastic plate and dip a plastic spoon into the paste. Apply it to the area of your shoebox that will be the baseball field. Press your rectangle of grass onto the acrylic paste and pat it into place. Your baseball field is now green.
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4
Cut a piece of tan or light brown felt to match the dimensions of the grass that you just glued. On that piece of felt, sketch a baseball diamond. The sketch doesn't have to be perfect, but you need to represent each of the bases and the connecting paths between them. Make sure you draw the round circle of the catcher's area, too.
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Cut out your sketch of the baseball diamond and turn it over. Using your plastic spoon, apply a light but thorough coating of acrylic paste to the bottom of it. Press your felt baseball diamond onto the artificial grass. Now your baseball field is complete.
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Squeeze out some light brown paint onto a plastic plate and dip your paintbrush in it. Draw horizontal lines an inch apart with a ruler and your paintbrush on each side of the dark brown interior. The idea is that these lines will account for the tiers of the stadium, so you want each horizontal line that you paint to wrap continuously along each side of the box's interior.
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Squeeze out a silver dollar-sized amount of green, blue, pink and red paint onto a plastic plate. Dip your paintbrush in one of the colors and start making small, dime-sized circles between each of the tiers of the stadium. These tiny circles represent the people watching the baseball game. Vary your colors as a crowd of people from far away usually looks like a myriad of different colors.
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Paint the mini baseball players (found at craft or dollhouse shops) to represent the teams that your diorama displays. For example, if you're portraying the New York Yankees, you'll want to paint white uniforms with navy blue pinstripes on each of the players. Position the miniature players in the areas of your baseball field where you need them to be. Glue them in place with craft glue. Glue the miniature mitts, bat and ball either to the players or to the baseball field. Check your diorama against your drawing to make sure all the elements that you wanted to portray are there.
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References
- Photo Credit baseball field image by Xavier MARCHANT from Fotolia.com
